Steve writes: "Following your own principle (if I understand you correctly) of diversity, every organization needs a few polymaths, but too many and it is likely to lose coherence?"
Polymaths attract people that want to be better and do good work. These people and those that work with them live in the space of ideas and accomplishments. In a big organization, the polymaths aren't the ones that need to hire people -- the candidates are standing in line often with their own funding. Then there are non-polymath professorial delegators that need people to do work for them, and individuals with narrow skills that want that work. I think Owen was talking about working in the first situation, and others are remarking on the reality of the latter and how odd it is to drift between the two. Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
